One Nation Under God

 

In 1954 President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," to the pledge of allegiance. America was then in its golden age, still being forged by what is referred to as the ‘greatest generation’. The faith and morals of that generation being a natural endorsement of the sentiment expressed. Even into the sixties it was still evident in national identity. 

One spectacular achievement of those times during the cold war and space race was the Apollo 8 mission; the first time man had left his home planet and ventured into space beyond earth’s orbit and saw our world from above. And on Christmas Eve as they made their final orbits of the moon; there was to be a short window of opportunity for the astronauts to deliver a TV broadcast, via NASA to the people on earth. Everyone gathered around their TV’s or Radio and as we looked for the first time at the earth rise the message was given: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."… 

It was a witness, not only to the atheistic Soviet union whom they had beaten to the goal, but a declaration to the world of who they were as a nation; a simple, faithful people who acknowledged His sovereignty. 

In the decades which followed we have seen an astonishing reversal and downward spiral in faith and morals to the degree that as Billy Graham’s late wife put it “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Decriminalization of abortion and sodomy during the seventies and more recently gay marriage and the insanity of gender ideology illustrate the extent of man’s rejection of God, now prevalent in society. 

The most terrifying prospect for the USA though is not that God would punish them or try to chastise the population and bring about repentance, no, that would be a blessing. What is worse is that He would accept their decision and withdraw His hand and leave the nation alone, to harden their hearts further (like the ancient Egyptians) until the society reaches the full extent of ruin. 

God sees the hearts of men and nations and He offers either justice or mercy as we wish. 

Freedom

There is a story told in Poland about Stalin; drinking vodka late at night, thinking about Poland, and mumbling that ‘trying to get Poles to embrace communism was like trying to put a horse’s saddle on a pig’

What is more surprising to me is how anyone managed to export the ideology to the Chinese, to whom it must have seemed equally unnatural. Thousands of years of innovation, faith and dynamism swept aside to make way for the monotony of a godless, humorless autocracy. As a creative, freedom-loving nation, it must have been stifling to have every aspect of life controlled, monitored and restricted in the manner it has been during its short epoch.

During his struggle with the British Empire, Gandhi noted that the small number of colonists cannot control millions of Indians once they decided not to be controlled anymore and his non-violent invitation for the British to leave was ultimately successful.  A handful of hard line Communists are beginning to realize that too, as many of their nation’s one billion souls long to be free again.

No one in China has forgotten the Tiananmen Square massacre; the broken tip of an enormous and growing iceberg of dissent and resistance; and all eyes are now on Hong Kong to see if the people there are ready to stand firm before the vice grips of the mainland regime close in on them and on the very core of what it is to be free. 

Perhaps in our lifetime we will see the return of China to greatness having rid herself of the malaise of Mao’s failed experiment and the streets of Peking (and Hong Kong) may be lit up with the joy of freedom, an inherent gift of God, once again; but not without struggle; not without blood, I suspect.

‘What if we listened ?’

I wondered the other day, how the world would look if the Second World War did not happen. No Nazi’s, no holocaust nor concentration camps, no mourning widows and orphans, no dead soldiers; Eastern Europe without  a half-century of living in the dark shadows of the Soviet Union.

In this 100^th anniversary year of the apparitions of Fatima, it’s worth pausing to consider the magnitude of the opportunity humanity has missed. Unlike in the Garden of Eden where Eve was deceived and our first parents had less understanding of the consequences of failure, our Lady gave really quite clear instructions to our more recent ancestors and even prophesied the stern, far-reaching result of not responding to her requests:- “But if people do not cease offending God ... another and more terrible war will begin. If my requests are heard, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, fomenting wars and persecution of the Church.” It could have all been prevented through repentance, change of heart, fervent prayer and sacrifice. Instead we chose death.

The wars and their consequences that we see playing out in our own day are an extension of the spiritual battle; that’s where the real action is and we are invited to participate in that through our prayer to advance against the forces of darkness that are behind the veil and the woes of this world.

Our collective and consistent prayers, we have been told, can prevent and stop wars, suspend the forces of nature, bind and disarm Satan and the fallen angels and save souls. And so we don’t get confused, our Lady even supplies the weapon we require: the Rosary. Young or old, illiterate or educated, ‘one size fits all’.

We have, within our grasp, such an amazing opportunity to change the world, or, we can wait ... for the next war, the next terrorist group, the next deadly disease, famine or weapon of mass destruction and bear the pain of our complacency and disobedience, like our ancestors did.

The conclusion of Fatima’s message is reassuring though “In the end my Immaculate heart will Triumph”.